Raul

You use the dial.

That 's the point, it can be done ........... with the proper equipment ( rod, line, reel ). I don 't fish tournaments, I 'm a weekend warrior, if the case calls for it I can fish all day long the better part of my baits with one rod, one reel and 10 lb test line. A case would be like me going on foot patrol every week ( even though I have a boat I can 't always fish from it ).

S*t happens.

Advantages of tungsten: 1.- Denser than lead: means that for the same weight tungsten sinker are smaller than lead sinkers, in some application smaller sinkers are better. 2.- Because it 's denser it has better vibration transmitting properties: you can feel the bottom composition better, which sometimes it 's important. 3.- Harder than lead: which means it doesn 't deform as much as lead does when fishing rough terrain. 4.- Better acoustic properties: in some circumstances such acoustic properties are better, like in Carolina rigs. 5.- Non toxic: in some places in the country lead is banned. Disadvantages of tungsten: 1.- Expensive 2.- You can 't pour tungsten ( and for me that is a disadvantage, most of my sinkers & jigheads are poured by me ). So it 's a matter of personal prefence.

Is it possible to use nothing but baitcast gear for everything?? Yes, if you have the right rod the right line and most importantly, the right reel for it. I can cast ( and have no idea how much it weights ) a 4 inch grub n 'hook 40 ft away without much effort with a Chronarch Mg spooled with 10 lbs test on my CR722, now, if you want to "save" ( yeah right, "save" is a term the BaitMonkey uses to describe something you don 't have to pay full retail price, I "saved" 600 dollars when I purchased 4 TDZs, instead pf paying $1,400 I paid $800 : ) I know the Curado 100D can do the same ( which you can find at a very good price now they are discontinued ).

I 've fished with reapers for a long time, the best have been these ones: http://store.mojolures.com/5reefer.aspx

Why not ? Or where you are planning to weight the bait ?

Deeper spool.

"The power to destoy a planet is insignificant next to the Power of the Force"

Oh well, that ain 't exactly a "pond" my man, it 's a view of one of the many coves Zimapán Lake ( 25 sq kilometers ) has to offer, the place is loaded with coves like that. If it weren 't so far away for a day 's expedition then I would say what you are saying, nobody could peel me away from it, but being 4 1/2 hours drive away I can only fish it a few times a year. Here 's some pics I took to my buddies Tapa and Pedro at that lake:

I 'd go with American Shad on both, I believe that the reflective surfaces that form the "scale" pattern found in that finish are good for any kind of water because they give away a lot of flash.

Old habits die hard, I 've been fishing for so long with straight tail worms that my "favorite" is a straight tail worm like a Trickworm or a Finesse worm or a Kut Tail Shakey tails should be good, now that I 'm running out of another Mann 's discontinued worm I suppose I can subtitute it with Zoom 's Shakey Tail or with GYCB 's worm 4-6" Mann 's Augertail worms are also good. Now that I come to think about it, almost any soft plastic bait is good for shakey heading.

Bank = 1 Boat = 3-5

Stargate ( SG1 and Atlantis ) Star Trek Star Trek the Next Generation Star Trek Voyager I like them all.

Strip pits per se, nope, but I fish lakes built upon canyons with vertical walls, it 's a matter of how you approach the pit. Many anglers are used to fish lakes with a certain degree of slope, we all know that the fish make use of certain structural features so what 's the difference ? the difference is that those structural features instead of being in a relatively horizontal position in pits or in canyon lakes are in vertical or near vertical postion, the fish are "hanging" from them, any structural feature on the wall attracts the fish to it. So the catch is NOT TO FISH TOO FAR AWAY FROM THE SHORELINE, if you are gong to fish not too far away from the shoreline and the water depth drops abruptly then if you are fishing from a boat you have to position the boat close to the shoreline and cast parallel to the shoreline so your bait doesn 't go too far away from the wall, if you cast perpendicular to the wall your bait gets away from the wall very fast and the fish are not going to chase the bait once it has left the strike zone which is only a few feet away from the structure. If you cast your baits perpendicular to the shoreline the strike zone is not away from it but close and into the depth so when fishing baits that are worked with the rod tip ( like soft plastics and jigs ) you have to remember not to overwork the rod tip, a couple of short jerks is enough otherwise the bait moves too far away and sinks into the depths where most probably it won 't be chased. Tubes and baits that sink awaya from you ( like Ikas or Sweet Beavers ) are great when fishng places like that, tubes sink vertically along the walls, the others return to the wall so you always maintain the bait close to the structure. Presentations like D-shotting fit those places like a glove. On the other hand, in a strip pit or quarry not everything is vertical walls, strip pits and quarries do have a particular bottom layaout which is built as the quarry is being exploited, they usually have a stair like appreance when they are being exploited, there are steps and terraces, piles of leftover material and roads used to remove the material, if you fish from a boat and have a depthfinder those features can easily be seen on the screen. Here 's how one of the lakes I fish looks like:

What the guys said, it may not be a problem of gearing but a problem of high grease viscosity.

Thats what you told your wife, to expalin all that crap in your closet, I ain't buying that for a minute Not kidding Muddy, I had the store, my personal crap is another story. The good thing of owning a store is that you get wholesale price on your crap. No wonder why you can really stretch the bill when you purchase your own crap.

I owned a tackle store, fortunately I didn 't have to make a living out of it.

Not anymore.

My man, mark this words in your mind: Crankbaiting is a contact sport If you are not fishing them where they can get hung up in an eyeblink you are not fishing them where the fish are. Now the catch is to learn how to manuever the bait through that cover and not hanging up all the time, I didn 't say not hanging up at all, ok ? I said, not hanging up all the time, so that means that you will ocassionally get hung up, it takes time to learn how to manuever the crank and you will get hung up oftenly but with practice you learn. First of all, dude, pleez ......... take a look at the label !: 1.- there it says if the bait is a sinker, a floater or a suspending bait, now knowing what you 've got it 's easier to know what can you expect and what the bait is good for. 2.- The diving depth of the bait is there Sinkers sink, all right ? you may say that 's stupid to say that sinkers sink so what 's the big deal about sinkers sinking ? the rate of fall at which the sinker sinks, and why it 's so important ? cuz knowing at what speed ( ft/sec) the bait sinks you can use the rate of fall as tool and what probably didn 't look at as such a bright idea, like throwing a lipless crank ( which most of them sink and are snag magnets ) at a brushpile you knowing at which speed it sinks now you can cast the bait and the bait doesn 't snag, knowing the sink rate brings another use for the tool. Floaters float all right ? but some float ( rise ) faster than others, fat bodied baits float faster than flat bodied baits, so what works well on fat bodied baits works well for flat bodied but .... at a slower pace. So what 's the difference ? well, in the snaggy aspect of the sport it means that if you stop reeling in when you feel the bait is hanging up if you are fishing a fat bait the bait rises fast clearing the obstacle, do the same with a flat/thin bait and you 'll have to wait a longer period of time before the bait has cleared the obstacle; on the other hand, just like knowing the rate of fall helps you to work a sinker bait more efficiently so does knowing that a fatty bait rises faster than a slimy bait. You can twitch more times a slimmy bait while it 's rising than a fatty while almost maintaining the diving depth, which means that the fish will have more time to be attracted by the bait. Suspending baits suspend, well, in theory they suspend, suspending baits supend at a certain depth if the water temperature is the correct one for that bait, it means that normally they don 't suspend but rise at a very slow rate, hat 's important from the snaggy side of the sport, it means that if you feel that bait is going to snag you better stop reeling in right away and that you can take a nap before the bait rises to a level where it can clear the obstacle. Also, get a plug knocker, crankbaiting without a plug knocker at hand is just plain dumb finantially.

You put a lot of emphasis on color, it 's important ? yes ......at the very bottom of my list of things I choose when selecting a bait. You say you were fishing with your grandpaw and he was catching fish like crazy with X color, while you with Y color weren 't catching even a cold, but have you ever wondered what was your grandpaw doing while you weren 't ? you left out a very important parameter ---> presentation assuming that you were at the same location.

Dude, get a pack of these: regular 8 inch worms and slice the tail, voilá, there have it, 8" kut tails. BTW, you know why they are called KUT tails don 't you ?

Mag TS rods are not made in the US, they are made in China.

Copolymer is MONOfilament. Mono doesn 't equal nylon only, the term applies to any line made from one filament. If you are going to jump on CXX don 't jump big on the poundage, 12 lbs is a short step from having as much maneageability as wire ( even though it 's absurdly strong ), coils like hell but when it comes to muscle its 'fine.